CN118300764A

CN118300764A - Demodulation reference signaling in LTE/NR coexistence

Info

Publication number: CN118300764A
Application number: CN202410503598.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: R·巴尔德梅尔; F·胡斯; F·海泽; A·加西姆梅迪
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Current assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Priority date: 2018-09-20
Filing date: 2018-09-20
Publication date: 2024-07-05
Also published as: US10560297B1; US11212150B2; US11811703B2; US20220078062A1; US20240039677A1; BR112021004777A2; WO2020060459A1; CN118316583A; EP3854018A1; US20200136874A1; CN112740596A; KR20210046073A

Abstract

A method of operating a network node (100) is disclosed, the network node (100) operating according to a first radio access technology, RAT, the method comprising: signaling including communication signaling and demodulation reference signaling, DMRS, is transmitted in a transmission resource pattern, wherein the DMRS is arranged in the transmission resource pattern according to a DMRS pattern selected from a set of DMRS patterns based on a coexistence indication indicating presence of cell specific reference signals, CRSs, associated with the second RAT. The present disclosure also relates to related methods and apparatus.

Description

Demodulation reference signaling in LTE/NR coexistence

Filing and applying for separate cases

The application is a divisional application of patent application with the application number 201880097495.0, the application date 2018, 9 months and 20 days, and 2021, 3 months and 15 days, entering the national stage of China, and the application name of demodulation reference signaling in LTE/NR coexistence.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to wireless communication technologies, particularly in the context of radio access coexistence of disparate technologies.

Background

Some radio access technologies (like LTE and NR) will operate in the same frequency range, thus requiring methods that allow coexistence, e.g. such that for overlapping or coordinated cells or transmissions, unwanted interference is limited.

Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of the present disclosure to provide a method of facilitating coexistence of different RATs, particularly in the context of reference signals, while having little signaling overhead and/or allowing efficient use of available resources.

These methods are particularly advantageously implemented in fifth generation (5G) telecommunication networks or 5G radio access technologies or networks (RAT/RAN), in particular according to 3GPP (third generation partnership project, standardization organization). In particular, a suitable RAN may be a RAN according to NR (e.g. release 15 or higher) or LTE evolution.

A method of operating a network node operating according to a first radio access technology, RAT, is disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: signaling including communication signaling and demodulation reference signaling, DMRS, is transmitted in a transmission resource pattern. The DMRS is arranged in the transmission resource pattern according to a DMRS pattern selected from a set of DMRS patterns based on a coexistence indication indicating presence of cell-specific reference signals, CRSs, associated with a second RAT.

A network node adapted to operate according to a first radio access technology, RAT, is also disclosed. The network node is adapted to: signaling including communication signaling and demodulation reference signaling, DMRS, is transmitted in a transmission resource pattern. The DMRS is arranged in the transmission resource pattern according to a DMRS pattern selected from a set of DMRS patterns based on a coexistence indication indicating presence of cell-specific reference signals, CRSs, associated with a second RAT. The network node may comprise and/or be adapted to utilize processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular a transmitter and/or a transceiver and/or a receiver, for transmitting signaling and/or selecting a mode such as a DMRS pattern, and/or for receiving signaling and/or one or more indications, e.g. coexistence indications and/or capability indications.

Furthermore, a method of operating a user equipment, UE, is described. The user equipment operates according to a first radio access technology, RAT. The method comprises the following steps: based on the transmission resource pattern, signaling including communication signaling and demodulation reference signaling, DMRS, is received. Receiving the signaling includes: the method further includes associating signaling received based on the transmission resource pattern with DMRS based on a DMRS pattern selected from a set of DMRS patterns based on a coordination indication indicating a presence of cell-specific reference signals, CRSs, associated with a second RAT.

A user equipment adapted to operate according to a first radio access technology, RAT, is also considered. The user equipment is adapted to: based on the transmission resource pattern, receiving signaling including communication signaling and demodulation reference signaling, DMRS, wherein the receiving includes: the method further includes associating signaling received based on the transmission resource pattern with DMRS based on a DMRS pattern selected from a set of DMRS patterns based on a coordination indication indicating a presence of cell-specific reference signals, CRSs, associated with a second RAT. The user equipment may comprise and/or be adapted to utilize processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular a transceiver and/or a receiver, for receiving the signaling and/or associating the DMRS pattern and/or selecting the DMRS pattern.

The methods described herein facilitate efficient use of time/frequency resources in a coexisting RAN while enabling avoidance of overlapping of important reference signals. In particular, for LTE/NR coexistence, although the normal NR DMRS pattern specifies overlapping of long PDSCH signaling, communication signaling (e.g., PDSCH) extending up to the last symbol in a slot can be used without DMRS and CRS interference.

Selecting a mode by a network node or UE may generally comprise determining a mode to be selected, e.g. according to an indication or instruction or independently. The receiving may comprise demodulating and/or decoding the signaling, e.g., decoding and/or demodulating the communication signaling, in particular based on the DMRS. The transmission resource structure may be scheduled by the network node for transmission and/or the network node may indicate to the user equipment to schedule the transmission (dynamically), e.g., using scheduling assignments and/or DCI and/or PDCCH transmissions, and/or semi-statically, and/or using higher layer signaling (e.g., using RRC configuration). In general, the transmission resource structure may represent (specific) scheduling signaling, e.g. for a specific time slot or a group of time slots. It should be noted that the selected DMRS pattern affects the demodulation process of the associated communication signaling, particularly in relation to interpolation or extrapolation of the communication signaling in one or more adjacent symbols, wherein the communication signaling follows the last symbol associated with the DMRS. In general, symbols carrying or intended or scheduled or configured to carry DMRS may be considered as symbols associated with DMRS.

The first RAT may be considered to correspond to a new radio NR technology and the second RAT to correspond to a long term evolution LTE technology. The DMRS and CRS may overlap or partially overlap in frequency space. The DMRS pattern may cause the DMRS and CRS to be separated in the time domain, e.g., transmitted or transmittable at different time symbol intervals. The time slots may be time slots according to NR RATs.

The DMRS pattern may be selected based on a capability indication indicating a capability of the user equipment to select a DMRS pattern based on a coordination indication. The capability indication may for example explicitly indicate the capability and/or implicitly indicate the capability, e.g. indicate the class or type of UE, and/or manufacturer (in particular manufacturer of radio circuits such as baseband chips), and/or series or time of manufacture. The network node may be adapted to check the capability indication against a list of capable UEs to determine whether the UE is capable based on the capability indication. The list may be provided in a memory or storage medium accessible to the network node and/or to a processing circuit of the network node.

The signaling (e.g., the communication signaling and/or DMRS) may be embedded in and/or carried by the transmission resource structure, e.g., such that resource elements of the resource structure carry the signaling, e.g., modulation symbols of the signaling. The signaling may generally be transmitted using and/or in accordance with the first RAT.

The communication signaling may be and/or include data signaling and/or physical downlink shared channel PDSCH signaling. In some cases, the communication signaling may include and/or be control signaling, such as PDCCH signaling.

In some cases, the transmission resource structure may have an end symbol (the last symbol or symbol time interval of the structure in the time domain) that may be arranged in a symbol preceding the end symbol of a slot, or may coincide with and/or correspond to the end symbol of a slot, such as slot 13 or 6 (counting symbols in a slot starting from 0).

The transmission resource structure may be embedded in a time slot (e.g., scheduled for transmission in a time slot), and/or represent a time slot or a portion of a time slot. The transmission resource structure may generally represent a time slot or a portion of a time slot, such as a plurality of consecutive symbol time intervals of a time slot. The transmission resource structure may be mapped to a slot such that symbols of the transmission resource structure coincide and/or correspond with symbols of the slot.

It may be considered that the transmission resource structure may be scheduled to end in and/or comprise the last symbol of a time slot, wherein the last symbol is e.g. symbol 13, and/or the transmission resource structure comprises long communication signaling and/or long physical downlink shared channel PDSCH transmissions which may be scheduled to have a duration from symbol n of a time slot to symbol m of a time slot, wherein n may be in the range of 1 to 7 and/or corresponds to one of the first half symbols of a time slot, and/or wherein m may be 12 or 13 and/or represent the last symbol or the penultimate symbol of a time slot.

The coordination indication and/or the capability indication may be provided with higher layer signaling (e.g., MAC or RRC signaling and/or application layer signaling). In some cases, the coordination indication and/or the capability indication may be provided at random access, e.g., using a first RRC configuration or reconfiguration. The capability indication may be provided with uplink signaling and/or the coordination indication may be provided with downlink signaling.

The DMRS pattern set may include two or more patterns. The different patterns in the set may differ in at least one location in time or symbol that carries or is intended to carry or is associated with a DMRS. Different DMRS patterns may indicate the same number of symbols carrying DMRS, or in some cases, different numbers of symbols carrying DMRS. The selected DMRS may be a pattern in which symbols carrying the DMRS are shifted in time relative to symbols or time intervals carrying CRSs of the second RAT. The DMRS pattern may relate to a transmission resource structure having the same duration and/or extension in the time domain. For transmission resource structures having the same duration and/or extension in the time domain, selecting communication signaling may be considered equivalent to selecting a DMRS pattern, as the communication pattern may be linked to a corresponding DMRS pattern. For example, within a transmission resource structure, symbols not associated with a DMRS may be associated with communication signaling, and vice versa. The DMRS pattern selected may be the following pattern: the pattern does not include or block DMRS on symbol 11 where the transmission resource structure of the slot is embedded and/or indicates DMRS on symbols 10 and/or 12, especially for cases where the same parameter set is used between synchronized RATs. In general, the DMRS pattern selected may be the following pattern: the pattern does not include or prevent DMRS signaling on one or more symbols corresponding to symbols of the second RAT carrying or intended to carry CRS, in particular prevents or does not include DMRS on symbols corresponding to symbol 11 of a subframe of the second RAT or covering that symbol 11. In particular, the DMRS patterns in the set may differ in terms of the last symbol (in the time domain related to the transmission resource structure and/or in the time slot in which the transmission resource structure is embedded) indicated as carrying a DMRS. For example, the last symbol may be shifted by one symbol time interval or more than one symbol time interval between two different modes. The last symbol indicated to carry a DMRS according to the selected DMRS pattern may be considered to be one symbol time interval later or earlier (e.g., in terms of symbol time interval of the second RAT) than in at least one other DMRS pattern of the set (e.g., a DMRS pattern to be used when coexistence is not indicated).

A network node may be considered a radio node. Scheduling the transmission resource structure may include scheduling the structure for transmitting the signaling or corresponding data in a time slot. Transmitting data or signaling based on the transmission resource structure may include utilizing resource elements of the transmission resource structure to transmit associated signaling. The transmission may include encoding and/or modulation of data or reference information. The transmission of control signaling (e.g. DCI signaling and/or scheduling assignments) may be indicated to a receiver (e.g. user equipment) such as to be scheduled or configured or assigned, in particular. Such an indication may be part of a scheduling of the transmission resource structure. The transmission resource structure may represent a time-frequency resource structure, which may include N1 subcarriers and M1 symbols (symbol time intervals), where M1 may be 13 or less, e.g., between 10 and 13, which may be considered to be associated with a long transmission. Operating according to a first RAT may include transmitting (e.g., transmitting and/or receiving) in a first frequency range and/or operating according to the second RAT may include transmitting on a second frequency range. The first range and the second range may at least partially overlap. The first frequency range may correspond to and/or be embedded in a carrier bandwidth or bandwidth portion, which may be an active bandwidth portion. The second frequency range may in particular be the carrier bandwidth or in some cases may be a fraction of the carrier bandwidth. The RAT may be operated or operable in the downlink. The transmission resource structure may be scheduled for the first frequency range and/or spread in the frequency domain within the first frequency range and/or the second frequency range. The transmission resource structure may include and/or represent transmissions on a physical channel (e.g., a shared channel such as PDSCH). The DMRS may be associated with the communication signaling and/or data, e.g., for demodulating and/or decoding modulation symbols carrying the communication signaling or data. Symbols associated with different signaling or sets, e.g., in reference signaling (e.g., DMRS and CRS) may be considered separate, provided that symbols carrying one type of signaling are not carrying another type of signaling at the same time, where the type of signaling may be, e.g., DMRS and CRS, or reference signaling associated with a first RAT and reference signaling associated with a second RAT, or communication signaling and DMRS. For the frequency domain, the separation may be similar in terms of subcarriers (rather than symbols). The operation over the first frequency range and the second frequency range may be based on the same parameter set or on different parameter sets. The transmission resource structure may be constructed from a set of parameters of the first RAT.

The coexistence indication may be received by the network node, e.g. via a suitable interface, e.g. from another network node and/or a core network. Alternatively or additionally, the coexistence indication may be determined by the network node and/or read from memory (e.g., if the coexistence indication is preconfigured), e.g., based on measurements of signaling typical of and/or representative of the second RAT. The coordination indication may be received by the user equipment, for example, from a network node operable according to the first RAT and/or the second RAT. Alternatively or additionally, the coordination indication may be determined by the user equipment and/or read from memory, e.g. based on measurements of signaling typical of and/or representative of the second RAT. In general, it may be assumed that the network node and/or the user equipment is aware of operation according to the first and second RATs over a common frequency range. Operation according to the first RAT may cause resources not used to operate according to the second RAT to be utilized. A network node operating according to the first RAT may coordinate and/or exchange information with a network node operating according to the second RAT. It should be noted that such nodes may be physically the same device or separate from each other. The data signalling may be represented by data transmission according to the transmission resource structure. Receiving data based on a transmission resource structure may take into account time delays due to path effects. The transmission resource structure to be received may be indicated to the user equipment, e.g. using control signaling and/or DCI (which may in particular indicate a duration and/or an end symbol of the transmission resource structure). The resource elements of the first and/or second set may be included in the transmission resource structure. The transmission resource structure may be associated with and/or included in a time slot. The transmission resource structure may be based on time slots or represent micro-slots. The transmission resource structure may be spread over one or more symbols in the time domain, in particular it may be longer than 1,2, 3 or 4 symbols in length and/or shorter than 10, 11, 12 or 13 symbols. The coexistence indication and/or the coordination indication may indicate the presence of the cell-specific reference signaling based on indicating operation according to the second RAT and/or based on explicitly indicating the signaling and/or indicating a location of the cell-specific reference signaling in time and/or frequency. The UE may obtain the capability information, e.g., read from a memory and/or from preconfigured or installed information. In general, communication signaling may carry and/or represent data, which may be represented by modulated symbols carrying bits of the data. The encoded bits may be associated with data and/or communication signaling. The resource elements or subcarriers or symbols carrying one type of signaling (e.g., communication signaling or DMRS) may be those that actually carry such signaling, or that are intended or scheduled or assumed to carry such signaling.

The DMRS pattern may indicate which symbols (symbol time intervals) the DMRS is carried and/or arranged on in the time domain, e.g. within and/or associated with the transmission resource structure and/or with respect to the time slots in which the transmission resource structure is embedded. The communication signaling may be arranged in the transmission resource structure, e.g. in the time domain, based on the communication mode. The communication signaling may be separated from the DMRS in the time domain and/or the DMRS and communication pattern may be separated in the time domain. In some cases, however, some overlap may be considered, for example, such that for one symbol time interval, some subcarriers carry communication signaling, while other subcarriers carry DMRS. Additionally, the DMRS pattern may relate to the frequency domain, e.g., indicating which subcarriers carry DMRS. The communication mode may also relate to the frequency domain, e.g. indicating which sub-carriers carry communication signaling. The DMRS pattern may represent one or more combs, for example, in the frequency domain. A comb may generally represent a distribution of subcarriers, wherein N subcarriers not included in a (frequency domain) pattern and/or included in a (frequency domain) separate set of the pattern are arranged between subcarriers of the pattern. N may be 0 or greater; in some cases, two or more combs with N1 or N2 may be combined to form a comb with different N3, N3 being less than N1 and N2. In general, elements of the DMRS pattern may be associated with one or more symbols of the transmission resource structure, e.g., forming a comb for each symbol, where the combs for different symbols may be the same or different. The pattern may be based on the length and/or the location of the transmission resource structure, e.g. the location in a time slot. The length or duration of the structure may relate to the number of symbols it includes and the position may be relative to the symbols in the slot. The first symbol or starting symbol of the transmission resource structure may coincide with and/or be located at symbol S of the slot, where S may in particular be greater than 2 or 3. The last symbol or end symbol of the structure may coincide with and/or be located at symbol E of the slot, where E may in particular be 13. The slot may be considered to have two additional symbols for different signaling (e.g. reference signaling according to the first RAT). Generally, a RAT may describe communication standards, such as signaling structures and/or protocols. Operations according to the first RAT and the second RAT may be synchronized, for example, such that subframe boundaries or reference symbols of the second RAT coincide with slot boundaries or reference symbols of the first RAT.

In particular, the first RAT may correspond to a new radio NR technology, while the second RAT corresponds to a long term evolution LTE technology. In general, the cell-specific reference signaling may be CRS (cell-specific reference signaling). The reference signaling may be according to a particular mode, e.g., as specified and/or configured for operation according to the second RAT.

In general, the resource elements for a DMRS may be shifted in time relative to the location of cell-specific reference symbols, e.g., according to the DMRS pattern. It can generally be appreciated that the location of a DMRS in time, e.g., relative to the transmission resource structure and/or slot, can depend on the duration and/or end symbol (and accordingly the end symbol location in the slot). It may be considered that the DM-RS position in time and/or the pattern is different for different durations and/or end symbols (respectively end symbol positions), e.g. according to the first RAT. Thus, scheduling the transmission timing structure using the duration and/or end symbols may define a suitable arrangement of DM-RSs over time. The transmission resource structure may be considered to be scheduled such that among a plurality of possible modes for the second set and/or locations of resource elements of the second set, a mode or location is selected that shifts DM-RS in time relative to a location of a cell-specific reference signal according to the second RAT.

The DMRS pattern may be punctured in the frequency domain, e.g., for one or more symbols. The punctured pattern may comprise at least two sub-carriers for one or more symbols, the at least two sub-carriers being separated from each other by at least one sub-carrier (punctured element) that does not belong to the pattern and/or is comprised in a second pattern separate from the pattern. The punctured elements may correspond to the following resource elements: for these resource elements, cell-specific reference signals according to the second RAT may be expected.

It may be considered that in the time slot in which the communication signaling or data is transmitted, there are scheduled channel state information reference signals (e.g. CSI-RS) and/or other reference signals according to the first RAT, which are included after and/or at the end of the transmission resource structure. Such reference signals may include, for example, tracking reference signals and/or beam-related signals. Therefore, resources can be used efficiently. The scheduled signals may be transmitted and/or scheduled by the network node, which may be adapted accordingly. The UE may be adapted and/or configured to receive and/or report the reference signal.

Furthermore, a program product is considered comprising instructions adapted to cause a processing circuit to control and/or perform a method as described herein. A carrier medium apparatus carrying and/or storing a corresponding program product is proposed.

The coexistence indication may indicate that the network node knows that, for example, in a common cell and/or sector and/or angle or spatial or geographical area, operation may be performed according to the second RAT. The operations may cause resources to be shared, e.g., such that the operations are according to only one RAT in the case of time and/or frequency. The coordination indication may be similar for the UE.

The methods described herein facilitate negative impact of transmissions in the first RAT on cell-specific reference signals of the second RAT, which is generally particularly important for operating in accordance with the second RAT. Because DMRS locations generally have only limited flexibility, and in particular the time position of a DMRS signal in a transmission resource structure may depend, for example, on its time length and/or location within a slot, the transmission timing structure may be selected such that the DM-RS is shifted in time relative to the cell-specific reference signal. Interference can be limited and/or avoided because data can be more flexibly allocated to resource elements or can be discarded with less important components.

Drawings

The drawings are provided to illustrate the concepts and methods described herein and are not intended to limit their scope. The drawings include:

Fig. 1 shows possible transmissions in LTE/NR coexistence;

Fig. 2 shows an exemplary transmission resource structure for LTE/NR coexistence;

Fig. 3 shows an exemplary radio node implemented as a terminal or UE; and

Fig. 4 illustrates an exemplary radio node implemented as a network node.

Detailed Description

Variations are described below in the context of NR/LTE coexistence, but the methods may be implemented in different contexts.

Fig. 1 shows possible transmissions for synchronous operation for LTE/NR coexistence. The LTE timing structure refers to subframes and the NR timing refers to slots. In this example, the parameter sets used are the same such that the NR symbols and symbol time intervals coincide with the LTE symbols and symbol time intervals and have the same duration. Other situations may be considered. The symbols in the slots/subframes are numbered 0 to 13. LTE allows different CRS patterns depending on the CRS antenna ports used. Symbols 1 and 8 may carry CRSs for the configured 4 antenna ports. Currently, the DMRS may be configured for symbol 2 or 3 (possibility 1 or 2) according to NR. It can be seen that for symbol 11, the dmrs and CRS overlap in time.

Fig. 2 illustrates an exemplary transmission resource structure that avoids overlapping. Such a structure may be used based on a coincidence indication or coordination indication and/or based on a capability indication. The upper structure again shows LTE subframes with CRS patterns. In a first possible selected mode, the last DMRS symbol may occur after the last CRS, e.g., it may be indicated for slot 12 instead of 11. In another mode, the last DMRS symbol may occur before the last CRS symbol, e.g., it may be indicated for slot 10 instead of 11. For the first solution, the demodulation of the last communication signaling (symbol 13) may be improved, but at the cost of demodulation of the earlier communication signaling may be less reliable. For the second solution, demodulation of communication signaling trailing the last DMRS symbol may be negatively affected, while demodulation of earlier communication signaling may be more reliable.

Fig. 3 schematically shows a radio node, in particular a terminal or wireless device 10, which may in particular be implemented as a UE (user equipment). The radio node 10 comprises a processing circuit (which may also be referred to as control circuit) 20, which may comprise a controller connected to a memory. Any module of the radio node 10, such as a communication module or a determination module, may be implemented in the processing circuit 20 and/or executed by the processing circuit 20, in particular as a module in a controller. The radio node 10 further comprises a radio circuit 22 (e.g. one or more transmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers) providing receiving and transmitting or transceiving functionality, the radio circuit 22 being connected or connectable to the processing circuit. The antenna circuit 24 of the radio node 10 is connected or connectable to the radio circuit 22 for collecting or transmitting and/or amplifying signals. The radio circuit 22 and the processing circuit 20 controlling it are configured for cellular communication with a network, such as the RAN described herein, and/or for sidelink communication. The radio node 10 may generally be adapted to perform any method of operating a radio node such as a terminal or UE as disclosed herein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, such as processing circuitry and/or modules.

Fig. 4 schematically shows a radio node 100, which may in particular be implemented as a network node 100, e.g. an eNB or a gNB for NR or similar. The radio node 100 comprises a processing circuit (which may also be referred to as control circuit) 120, which may comprise a controller connected to a memory. Any module, such as a transmit module and/or a receive module and/or a configuration module of node 100, may be implemented in processing circuit 120 and/or executed by processing circuit 120. The processing circuit 120 is connected to a control radio circuit 122 of the node 100, which provides receiver and transmitter and/or transceiver functions (e.g., including one or more transmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers). The antenna circuit 124 may be connected or connectable to the radio circuit 122 for signal reception or transmission and/or amplification. Node 100 may be adapted to perform any method for operating a radio node or network node as disclosed herein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, such as processing circuitry and/or modules. The antenna circuit 124 may be connected to and/or include an antenna array. Node 100 (and accordingly its circuitry) may be adapted to perform any of the methods of operating a network node or a radio node described herein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, such as processing circuitry and/or modules. The radio node 100 may typically comprise communication circuitry, e.g. for communicating with another network node, e.g. a radio node, and/or with a core network and/or the internet or a local area network, in particular with an information system, which may provide information and/or data to be transmitted to the user equipment.

References to specific resource structures, such as transmission timing structures and/or symbols and/or slots and/or minislots and/or sub-carriers and/or carriers, may relate to specific parameter sets that may be predefined and/or configured or configurable. The transmission timing structure may represent a time interval that may cover one or more symbols. Some examples of transmission timing structures are Transmission Time Intervals (TTI), subframes, slots, and minislots. The time slots may include a predetermined (e.g., predefined and/or configured or configurable) number of symbols, such as 6, 7, 12, or 14. The number of symbols comprised by a micro slot (which may in particular be configurable or configurable) may be smaller than the number of symbols of a slot, in particular 1,2, 3 or 4 symbols. The transmission timing structure may cover a time interval of a certain length, which may depend on the used symbol time length and/or cyclic prefix. The transmission timing structure may relate to and/or cover a specific time interval in the time stream, e.g. be synchronized for communication. The timing structures (e.g., slots and/or minislots) used and/or scheduled for transmission may be scheduled or synchronized to timing structures provided and/or defined by other transmission timing structures relative to timing structures provided and/or defined by other transmission timing structures. Such a transmission timing structure may define a timing grid, e.g. symbol time intervals within an individual structure represent minimum timing units. Such a timing grid may be defined, for example, by time slots or subframes (where in some cases a subframe may be considered a particular variant of a time slot). The transmission timing structure may have a duration (length of time) determined based on the duration of its symbol (possibly plus the cyclic prefix used), possibly in addition to the cyclic prefix used. The symbols of the transmission timing structure may have the same duration or may have different durations in some variations. The number of symbols in the transmission timing structure may be predefined and/or configured or configurable and/or dependent on a parameter set. The timing of the minislots may be generally configurable or configurable, particularly by the network and/or network nodes. The timing may be configurable to start and/or end at any symbol of the transmission timing structure, in particular one or more slots.

Generally considered is a program product comprising instructions adapted to cause a processing circuit and/or a control circuit to perform and/or control any of the methods described herein, in particular when executed on the processing circuit and/or the control circuit. Also contemplated is a carrier medium apparatus carrying and/or storing a program product as described herein.

The carrier medium means may comprise one or more carrier mediums. Typically, the carrier medium is accessible and/or readable and/or receivable by the processing or control circuit. Storing data and/or program products and/or code may be considered to carry data and/or program products and/or code as part of. Carrier media may generally include a guidance/transmission medium and/or a storage medium. The guiding/transmission medium may be adapted to carry and/or store signals, in particular electromagnetic signals and/or electrical signals and/or magnetic signals and/or optical signals. The carrier medium, in particular the guiding/transmission medium, may be adapted to guide such signals to carry them. The carrier medium, in particular the guiding/transmission medium, may comprise an electromagnetic field (e.g. radio waves or microwaves) and/or a light-transmitting material (e.g. glass fibers) and/or a cable. The storage medium may include at least one of: memory (which may be volatile or nonvolatile), buffers, caches, optical disks, magnetic memory, flash memory, and the like.

A system is described comprising one or more radio nodes, in particular a network node and a user equipment as described herein. The system may be a wireless communication system and/or provide and/or represent a radio access network.

Moreover, a method of operating an information system may generally be considered that includes providing information. Alternatively or additionally, an information system adapted to provide information may be considered. Providing information may include providing information to and/or providing information to a target system, which may comprise and/or be implemented as a radio access network and/or a radio node, in particular a network node or a user equipment or terminal. Providing information may include transmitting and/or streaming and/or transmitting and/or communicating information and/or providing information for this and/or for downloading and/or triggering such provision, for example by triggering a different system or node to stream and/or transmit and/or communicate information. The information system may comprise the target and/or be connected or connectable to the target, e.g. via one or more intermediate systems, e.g. a core network and/or the internet and/or a private or local network. The information may be provided using and/or via such an intermediate system. As described herein, the provisioning information may be for radio transmission and/or for transmission via an air interface and/or with a RAN or radio node. The linking of the information system to the target and/or providing of the information may be based on the target indication and/or adapting the target indication. The target indication may indicate a path or connection over which the target and/or one or more parameters and/or information related to the transmission of the target are provided to the target. Such parameters may particularly relate to an air interface and/or a radio access network and/or a radio node and/or a network node. Example parameters may indicate, for example, a type and/or nature of the target and/or transmission capacity (e.g., data rate) and/or delay and/or reliability and/or cost (respectively, one or more estimates thereof). The indication of the target may be provided by the target or determined by an information system, e.g., based on information received from the target and/or historical information, and/or provided by a user (e.g., a user operating the target or a device in communication with the target, e.g., via a RAN and/or an air interface). For example, the user may indicate on a user device in communication with the information system that information is to be provided via the RAN by selecting from choices provided by the information system, for example, on a user application or user interface (which may be a Web interface). An information system may include one or more information nodes. The information node may generally comprise processing circuitry and/or communication circuitry. In particular, the information system and/or the information node may be implemented as a computer and/or a computer device, e.g. a host computer or a host computer device and/or a server device. In some variations, an interaction server (e.g., web server) of the information system may provide a user interface and may trigger the sending and/or streaming of information offerings to a user (and/or target) from another server (which may be connected or connectable to the interaction server and/or may be part of the information system or connected or connectable to a part of the information system) based on user input. The information may be any kind of data, in particular data intended for use by a user on the terminal, e.g. video data and/or audio data and/or location data and/or interaction data and/or game related data and/or environment data and/or technical data and/or business data and/or vehicle data and/or environment data and/or operation data. The information provided by the information system may be mapped to and/or intended to be mapped to communication or data signaling and/or one or more data channels (which may be signaling or channels of an air interface and/or used in the RAN and/or for radio transmission) as described herein. It may be considered that the information is formatted based on the target indication and/or the target, e.g. with respect to the amount of data and/or the data rate and/or the data structure and/or timing, which may in particular relate to the mapping of communication or data signaling and/or data channels. Mapping information to data signaling and/or data channels may be considered to refer to, for example, using signaling/channels on a higher communication layer to carry data, where the signaling/channels are at the bottom of the transmission. The target indication may generally comprise different components, which may have different sources and/or may indicate different characteristics of the target and/or the communication path to the target. The format of the information may be specifically selected, for example, from a set of different formats, for the information to be transmitted over the air interface and/or by the RAN as described herein. This may be particularly relevant because the air interface may be limited in capacity and/or predictability and/or potentially sensitive to cost. The format may be selected to be suitable for transmitting an indication, which may particularly indicate that the RAN or radio node is in the path of information between the target and the information system (which may be indicated and/or planned and/or expected) as described herein. The (communication) path of information may represent an interface (e.g., an air and/or cable interface) and/or an intermediate system (if any) between the information system and/or the node providing or transmitting the information and the target on which the information is or will be transmitted. When the target indication is provided, and/or when the information is provided/transmitted by the information system, for example if the internet is involved (which may comprise a plurality of dynamically selected paths), the paths may be (at least partially) ambiguous. The information and/or the format for the information may be packet-based and/or mapped and/or mappable and/or intended to map to a packet. Alternatively or additionally, a method for operating a target device may be considered, the method comprising providing a target indication to an information system. Alternatively or additionally, a target device may be considered, which is adapted to provide a target indication to the information system. In another approach, a target indication tool may be considered that is adapted to and/or includes an indication module for providing a target indication to an information system. The target device may generally be a target as described above. The target indication tool may include and/or be implemented as software and/or an application and/or a web interface or user interface, and/or may include one or more modules for implementing actions performed and/or controlled by the tool. The tool and/or the target device may be adapted and/or the method may comprise: user input is received, based on which a target indication may be determined and/or provided. Alternatively or additionally, the tool and/or the target device may be adapted and/or the method may comprise: receive information and/or communication signaling carrying the information, and/or manipulate the information and/or present the information (e.g., on a screen and/or as audio or as other forms of indication). The information may be based on the received information and/or communication signaling carrying the information. Presenting information may include processing the received information, such as decoding and/or transforming, particularly between different formats, and/or for hardware to present. The operational information may be independent of presentation or non-presentation and/or presentation or successful and/or may be without user interaction or even user reception, e.g. for an automated process, or a target device without (e.g. conventional) user interaction, such as an MTC device for automotive or transportation or industrial use. Information or communication signaling may be expected and/or received based on the target indication. Rendering and/or manipulating the information may generally comprise one or more processing steps, in particular decoding and/or performing and/or interpreting and/or transforming the information. The operation information may typically comprise, for example, relaying and/or transmitting information over the air interface, which may comprise mapping the information onto signaling (such mapping may typically involve one or more layers, e.g. RLC (radio link control) layer and/or MAC layer and/or physical layer, of the air interface). This information may be imprinted (or mapped) on the communication signaling based on the target indication, which may make it particularly suitable for use in the RAN (e.g., for a target device such as a network node or in particular a UE or terminal). The tool may generally be adapted for use on a target device such as a UE or terminal. in general, the tool may provide a variety of functions, for example for providing and/or selecting target indications and/or presenting, for example, video and/or audio and/or operating and/or storing received information. Providing the target indication may include, for example, sending or transmitting the indication as signaling in the RAN and/or carrying the indication on the signaling in the case where the target device is a UE or a tool for the UE. It should be noted that the information so provided may be communicated to the information system via one or more additional communication interfaces and/or paths and/or connections. The target indication may be a higher layer indication and/or the information provided by the information system may be higher layer information, such as an application layer or a user layer, in particular above a radio layer, such as a transport layer and a physical layer. the target indication may be mapped on physical layer radio signaling, e.g. related to or on the user plane, and/or the information may be mapped on physical layer radio signaling, e.g. related to or on the user plane (in particular in the reverse communication direction). The described methods allow for providing targeted indications, facilitating information to be provided in a particular format that is particularly suited and/or adapted for efficient use of the air interface. The user input may, for example, represent a selection from a plurality of possible transmission modes or formats and/or paths (e.g., in terms of data rate and/or packaging and/or size of information to be provided by the information system).

In general, the parameter set and/or subcarrier spacing may indicate a bandwidth (in the frequency domain) of subcarriers of a carrier and/or a number of subcarriers in a carrier. In particular, different parameter sets may be different in terms of the bandwidth of the subcarriers. In some variations, all subcarriers in a carrier have the same bandwidth associated with it. The parameter sets and/or subcarrier spacing may differ from carrier to carrier, particularly in terms of subcarrier bandwidth. The symbol time length and/or the time length of the timing structure related to the carrier may depend on the carrier frequency and/or the subcarrier spacing and/or the parameter set. In particular, different parameter sets may have different symbol time lengths.

The signaling may generally include one or more symbols and/or signals and/or messages. The signal may include or represent one or more bits. The indication may represent signaling and/or may be implemented as a signal or signals. One or more signals may be included in and/or represented by a message. The signaling, in particular control signaling, may comprise a plurality of signals and/or messages, which may be transmitted on different carriers and/or associated with different signaling procedures, e.g. representing and/or relating to one or more such procedures and/or corresponding information. The indication may comprise signaling and/or a plurality of signals and/or messages and/or may be included therein, the indication may be sent on a different carrier and/or associated with a different acknowledgement signaling procedure, e.g. representing and/or relating to one or more such procedures. Signaling associated with a channel may be transmitted to represent signaling and/or information for the channel and/or to be interpreted by a transmitter and/or receiver as belonging to the channel. Such signaling may generally conform to the transmission parameters and/or format used for the channel.

The reference signaling may be signaling that includes one or more reference symbols and/or structures. The reference signaling may be adapted to measure and/or estimate and/or represent transmission conditions, such as channel conditions and/or transmission path conditions and/or channel (or signal or transmission) quality. It may be considered that transmission characteristics (e.g., signal strength and/or form and/or modulation and/or timing) of reference signaling may be used for both the transmitter and receiver of the signaling (e.g., due to being predefined and/or configured or configurable and/or being transmitted). Different types of reference signaling may be considered, e.g. involving uplink, downlink or sidelink, cell-specific (especially whole cell, e.g. CRS) or device-or user-specific (addressed to a specific target or user equipment, e.g. CSI-RS), demodulation correlations (e.g. DMRS) and/or signal strength correlations, e.g. power correlations or energy correlations or amplitude correlations (e.g. SRS or pilot signaling) and/or phase correlations etc.

An antenna arrangement may comprise one or more antenna elements (radiating elements) which may be combined in an antenna array. An antenna array or sub-array may comprise one or more antenna elements, which may be arranged, for example, two-dimensionally (e.g. a panel) or three-dimensionally. It is considered that each antenna array or sub-array or unit is individually controllable and, correspondingly, the different antenna arrays are controllable independently of each other. A single antenna element/radiator may be considered as the smallest example of a sub-array. Examples of antenna arrays include one or more multi-antenna panels or one or more independently controllable antenna elements. The antenna arrangement may comprise a plurality of antenna arrays. It may be considered that the antenna arrangement is associated with (specific and/or individual) radio nodes (e.g. configuring or informing or scheduling the wireless nodes), e.g. so as to be controlled or controllable by the radio nodes. The antenna apparatus associated with the UE or terminal may be smaller (e.g., in terms of size and/or number of antenna elements or arrays) than the antenna apparatus associated with the network node. The antenna elements of the antenna arrangement may be configured for e.g. different arrays, e.g. to change the beam forming characteristics. In particular, the antenna array may be formed by combining one or more independently or separately controllable antenna elements or sub-arrays. The beam may be provided by analog beamforming or, in some variations, may be provided by digital beamforming. Informing the radio node of the manner in which the beam transmission may be configured, e.g. by sending a corresponding indicator or indication (e.g. as a beam identification indication). However, the following may be considered: the radio node is informed that it is not configured with such information and/or is operating transparently, without knowing the beamforming approach used. The antenna arrangement may be considered to be individually controllable in terms of phase and/or amplitude/power and/or gain of signals fed thereto for transmission, and/or the individually controllable antenna arrangement may comprise individual or individual transmit and/or receive units and/or ADCs (analog to digital converters, or ADC chains) to convert digital control information into an analog antenna feed of the overall antenna arrangement (the ADCs may be considered as part of the antenna circuit and/or connected or connectable to the antenna circuit). A scenario in which each antenna element is individually controllable may be referred to as digital beamforming, whereas a scenario in which a larger array/sub-array is individually controllable may be considered as an example of analog beamforming. Mixed forms are contemplated.

The uplink or sidelink signaling may be OFDMA (orthogonal frequency division multiple access) or SC-FDMA (single carrier frequency division multiple access) signaling. The downlink signaling may in particular be OFDMA signaling. However, the signaling is not limited thereto (the filter bank based signaling may be regarded as an alternative).

A radio node may generally be considered to be a device or node adapted for wireless and/or radio (and/or microwave) frequency communication and/or communication using an air interface, e.g. according to a communication standard.

The radio node may be a network node or a user equipment or terminal. The network node may be any radio node of a wireless communication network, such as a base station and/or a gndeb (gNB) and/or an eNodeB (eNB) and/or a relay node and/or a micro/nano/pico/femto node and/or a Transmission Point (TP) and/or an Access Point (AP) and/or other nodes, in particular for a RAN as described herein.

In the context of the present disclosure, the terms wireless device, user Equipment (UE) and terminal may be considered interchangeable. A wireless device, user equipment or terminal may represent a terminal device that communicates using a wireless communication network and/or be implemented as a user equipment according to a standard. Examples of user equipment may include telephones such as smart phones, personal communication devices, mobile phones or terminals, computers (especially laptops), sensors or machines with radio capability (and/or adapted for air interface), especially for MTC (machine type communication, sometimes also referred to as M2M (machine to machine)), or vehicles adapted for wireless communication.

The radio node may generally comprise processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry. In some cases, a radio node (in particular a network node) may comprise cable circuitry and/or communication circuitry by which the radio node may be connected or connectable to another radio node and/or a core network.

The circuit may comprise an integrated circuit. The processing circuitry may comprise one or more processors and/or controllers (e.g., microcontrollers) and/or ASICs (application specific integrated circuits) and/or FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) or the like. The processing circuitry may be considered to comprise and/or be (operatively) connected or connectable to one or more memories or storage devices. The storage device may include one or more memories. The memory may be adapted to store digital information. Examples of memory include volatile and nonvolatile memory and/or Random Access Memory (RAM) and/or Read Only Memory (ROM) and/or magnetic and/or optical memory and/or flash memory and/or hard disk memory and/or EPROM or EEPROM (erasable programmable ROM or electrically erasable programmable ROM).

The radio circuitry may comprise one or more transmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers (which may operate or be operable as transmitters and receivers, and/or may comprise joint or separate circuitry for reception and transmission, e.g. in a package or housing) and/or may comprise one or more amplifiers and/or oscillators and/or filters and/or may comprise and/or be connected or connectable to antenna circuitry and/or one or more antennas and/or antenna arrays. The antenna array may include one or more antennas (which may be arranged in a dimensional array such as a 2D or 3D array) and/or an antenna panel. A Remote Radio Head (RRH) can be considered as an example of an antenna array. However, in some variations, the RRH may also be implemented as a network node, depending on the kind of circuitry and/or functionality implemented therein.

The communication circuitry may include radio circuitry and/or cable circuitry. The communication circuitry may generally comprise one or more interfaces, which may be air interfaces and/or cable interfaces and/or optical interfaces, for example laser-based. The interface may in particular be packet-based. The cable circuitry and/or cable interface may include and/or be connectable or connectable to one or more cables (e.g., fiber optic and/or wire-based), which may be connected or connectable directly or indirectly (e.g., via one or more intermediate systems and/or interfaces) to an object controlled, for example, by the communication circuitry and/or processing circuitry.

Any or all of the modules disclosed herein may be implemented in software and/or firmware and/or hardware. Different modules may be associated with different components of the radio node (e.g., different circuits or different portions of circuits). Modules may be considered to be distributed across different components and/or circuits. The program products described herein may include modules related to devices (e.g., user equipment or network nodes) on which the program products are intended to be executed (which may be executed on and/or controlled by associated circuitry).

The radio access network may be a wireless communication network and/or a Radio Access Network (RAN), in particular according to a communication standard. The communication standard may in particular be a standard according to 3GPP and/or 5G (e.g. according to NR or LTE, in particular LTE evolution).

The wireless communication network may be and/or include a Radio Access Network (RAN) that may be and/or include any kind of cellular and/or wireless radio network that may be connected or connectable to a core network. The methods described herein are particularly applicable to 5G networks, such as LTE evolution and/or NR (new radio), and correspondingly to the successor thereof. The RAN may include one or more network nodes, and/or one or more terminals, and/or one or more radio nodes. The network node may in particular be a radio node adapted for radio and/or wireless and/or cellular communication with one or more terminals. A terminal may be any device adapted for radio and/or wireless and/or cellular communication with or within a RAN, such as a User Equipment (UE) or a mobile phone or a smart phone or a computing device or a vehicular communication device or a device for Machine Type Communication (MTC), etc. The terminal may be mobile or, in some cases, stationary. The RAN or wireless communication network may comprise at least one network node and a UE, or at least two radio nodes. A wireless communication network or system, such as a RAN or RAN system, may generally be considered, comprising at least one radio node, and/or at least one network node and at least one terminal.

The transmission in the downlink may involve transmission from the network or network node to the terminal. The transmission in the uplink may involve a transmission from the terminal to the network or network node. The transmission in the sidelink may involve a (direct) transmission from one terminal to another. The uplink, downlink, and sidelinks (e.g., sidelink transmission and reception) may be considered as directions of communication. In some variations, the uplink and downlink may also be used to describe wireless communications between network nodes, for example for wireless backhaul and/or relay communications and/or (wireless) network communications between base stations or similar network nodes, in particular communications terminated herein. Backhaul and/or relay communications and/or network communications may be considered to be implemented as one form of sidelink communications or a similar form thereof.

The control information or control information message or corresponding signaling (control signaling) may be sent on a control channel (e.g., a physical control channel), which may be a downlink channel (or in some cases a sidelink channel, e.g., one UE schedules another UE). For example, control information/allocation information may be signaled by the network node on PDCCH (physical downlink control channel) and/or PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel) and/or HARQ specific channels. Acknowledgement signaling (e.g., as a form of uplink control information or signaling such as uplink control information/signaling) may be sent by the terminal on PUCCH (physical uplink control channel) and/or PUSCH (physical uplink shared channel) and/or HARQ specific channels. Multiple channels may be suitable for multi-component/multi-carrier indication or signaling.

Signaling can generally be considered to represent electromagnetic wave structures (e.g., over time intervals and frequency intervals) that are intended to convey information to at least one specific or generic (e.g., anyone who might pick up the signaling) target. The signaling procedure may include sending signaling. The transmission signaling, in particular control signaling or communication signaling, e.g. including or representing acknowledgement signaling and/or resource request information, may comprise coding and/or modulation. The encoding and/or modulation may include error detection encoding and/or forward error correction encoding and/or scrambling. Receiving control signaling may include corresponding decoding and/or demodulation. Error detection coding may include and/or be based on a parity or checksum method, such as a CRC (cyclic redundancy check). The forward error correction coding may comprise and/or be based on, for example, turbo coding and/or Reed-Muller coding and/or polarity coding and/or LDPC coding (low density parity check). The type of encoding used may be based on the channel (e.g., physical channel) associated with the encoded signal. Considering that the code adds coded bits for error detection coding and forward error correction, the code rate may represent a ratio of the number of information bits before the code to the number of coded bits after the code. The encoded bits may refer to information bits (also referred to as systematic bits) plus encoded bits.

The communication signaling may include and/or represent and/or be implemented as data signaling and/or user plane signaling. The communication signaling may be associated with a data channel, such as a physical downlink channel or a physical uplink channel or a physical side link channel, in particular a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) or a physical side link shared channel (PSSCH). In general, the data channel may be a shared channel or a dedicated channel. The data signaling may be signaling associated with and/or on a data channel.

The indication may generally indicate information of its representation and/or indication explicitly and/or implicitly. The implicit indication may be based on, for example, a location and/or a resource used for the transmission. The explicit indication may be based, for example, on parameterization of one or more bit patterns or bit fields having one or more parameters and/or one or more indices and/or representing information. In particular, it can be considered that control signaling as described herein implicitly indicates a control signaling type based on the utilized resource sequence.

The resource elements may generally describe the smallest individually available and/or encodable and/or decodable and/or modulatable and/or demodable time-frequency resources and/or may describe time-frequency resources that cover the symbol time length in time and the subcarriers in frequency. The signals may be allocable and/or allocated to resource elements. The sub-carriers may be, for example, sub-bands of carriers as defined by the standard. The carrier wave may define a frequency and/or band of frequencies for transmission and/or reception. In some variations, the signal (jointly encoded/modulated) may cover multiple resource elements. The resource elements may generally be as defined by the corresponding standard (e.g., NR or LTE). Since the symbol time length and/or subcarrier spacing (and/or parameter set) may differ between different symbols and/or subcarriers, different resource elements may have different extensions (length/width) in the time and/or frequency domain, in particular resource elements related to different carriers.

Resources may generally represent time-frequency and/or code resources over which signaling according to a particular format may be transmitted (e.g., transmitted and/or received) and/or intended for transmission and/or reception.

The boundary symbols may generally represent a start symbol or an end symbol for transmission and/or reception. The start symbol may in particular be a start symbol of uplink or sidelink signaling (e.g. control signaling or data signaling). Such signaling may be on a data channel or a control channel (e.g., a physical channel, in particular a physical uplink shared channel (e.g., PUSCH) or a sidelink data or shared channel, or a physical uplink control channel (e.g., PUCCH) or a sidelink control channel). If the start symbol is associated with control signaling (e.g., on a control channel), the control signaling may be responsive to the received signaling (on a sidelink or downlink), e.g., representing acknowledgement signaling associated with the control signaling, which may be HARQ or ARQ signaling. The end symbol may represent an end symbol (in time) of a downlink or sidelink transmission or signaling, which may be intended or scheduled for the radio node or the user equipment. Such downlink signaling may be, in particular, data signaling, for example, on a physical downlink channel such as a shared channel, e.g., a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). The start symbol may be determined based on and/or relative to such an end symbol.

Configuring a radio node, in particular a terminal or user equipment, may mean that the radio node is adapted, caused to set up and/or instructed to operate according to the configuration. The configuration may be done by another device, e.g. a network node (e.g. a radio node of a network such as a base station or eNodeB), or the network, in which case it may comprise sending configuration data to the radio node to be configured. Such configuration data may represent a configuration to be configured and/or include one or more instructions related to the configuration (e.g., a configuration for transmitting and/or receiving on allocated resources, particularly frequency resources). The radio node may configure itself, for example, based on configuration data received from the network or network node. The network node may utilize and/or be adapted to utilize its circuitry for configuration. Allocation information may be considered as a form of configuration data. The configuration data may include and/or be represented by configuration information and/or one or more corresponding indications and/or messages.

In general, configuring may include determining configuration data representing the configuration and providing, for example, for sending it to one or more other nodes (in parallel and/or sequentially), which may further send it to the radio node (or another node, which may repeat until it reaches the wireless device). Alternatively or additionally, configuring the radio node, e.g. by the network node or other device, may comprise receiving configuration data and/or data related to configuration data, e.g. from another node, such as a network node (which may be a higher level node of the network), and/or transmitting the received configuration data to the radio node. Thus, determining the configuration and sending the configuration data to the radio node may be performed by different network nodes or entities which are capable of communicating via a suitable interface (e.g. the X2 interface or a corresponding interface for NR in case of LTE). Configuring a terminal may comprise scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissions of the terminal (e.g. downlink data and/or downlink control signaling and/or DCI and/or uplink control or data or communication signaling, in particular acknowledgement signaling) and/or configuring resources and/or resource pools therefor.

One resource structure may be considered to be adjacent to another resource structure in the frequency domain if it shares a common boundary frequency with the other resource structure, e.g., one as an upper frequency boundary and the other as a lower frequency boundary. Such a boundary may be represented, for example, by an upper limit of the bandwidth allocated to subcarrier n, which also represents a lower limit of the bandwidth allocated to subcarrier n+1. One resource structure may be considered to be adjacent to another resource structure in the time domain if it shares a common boundary time with the other resource structure, e.g., one as an upper (or right in the figure) boundary and the other as a lower (or left in the figure) boundary. Such a boundary may be represented, for example, by the end of the symbol time interval assigned to symbol n, which end also represents the beginning of the symbol time interval assigned to symbol n+1.

In general, a resource structure that is adjacent to another resource structure in a domain may also be referred to as an adjoining and/or another resource structure in an adjoining domain.

The resource structure may generally represent a structure in the time and/or frequency domain, in particular a time interval and a frequency interval. The resource structure may comprise and/or consist of resource elements and/or the time interval of the resource structure may comprise and/or consist of symbol time intervals and/or the frequency interval of the resource structure may comprise and/or consist of subcarriers. A resource element may be considered as an example of a resource structure, and a slot or a small slot or a Physical Resource Block (PRB) or part thereof may be considered as other resource structures. The resource structure may be associated with a specific channel (e.g. PUSCH or PUCCH, in particular a resource structure smaller than a slot or PRB).

Examples of resource structures in the frequency domain include bandwidths or bands or portions of bandwidths. The bandwidth portion may be a portion of bandwidth available for communication (e.g., due to circuitry and/or configuration and/or regulations and/or standards) by the radio node. The bandwidth portion may be configured or configurable to the radio node. In some variations, the bandwidth portion may be a portion of bandwidth used for communication (e.g., transmission and/or reception) by the radio node. The bandwidth portion may be less than the bandwidth (which may be the device bandwidth defined by the circuitry/configuration of the device and/or the system bandwidth available to the RAN, for example). The bandwidth part may be considered to comprise one or more resource blocks or groups of resource blocks, in particular one or more PRBs or groups of PRBs. The bandwidth portion may relate to and/or include one or more carriers.

A carrier may generally represent a frequency range or band and/or relate to a center frequency and an associated frequency interval. The carrier may be considered to comprise a plurality of sub-carriers. A carrier may have a center frequency or center frequency interval (typically each subcarrier may be assigned a frequency bandwidth or interval) assigned to it, e.g., represented by one or more subcarriers. The different carriers may be non-overlapping and/or may be adjacent in the frequency domain.

It should be noted that the term "radio" in this disclosure may be generally considered to relate to wireless communication, and may also include wireless communication utilizing microwaves and/or millimeters and/or other frequencies (in particular between 100MHz or 1GHz and 100GHz or 20 or 10 GHz). Such communications may utilize one or more carriers.

A radio node, in particular a network node or terminal, may generally be any device adapted to send and/or receive radio and/or wireless signals and/or data, in particular communication data, in particular on at least one carrier. The at least one carrier may comprise a carrier accessed based on an LBT procedure (may be referred to as an LBT carrier), such as an unlicensed carrier. The carrier may be considered to be part of a carrier aggregation.

Receiving or transmitting on a cell or carrier may refer to receiving or transmitting using a frequency (band) or spectrum associated with the cell or carrier. A cell may generally comprise and/or be defined by one or more carriers, in particular at least one carrier for UL communication/transmission (referred to as UL carrier) and at least one carrier for DL communication/transmission (referred to as DL carrier). A cell may be considered to include different numbers of UL and DL carriers. Alternatively or additionally, the cell may comprise at least one carrier for UL communication/transmission and DL communication/transmission, e.g. in a TDD-based method.

The channel may typically be a logical, transport or physical channel. The channel may comprise and/or be arranged on one or more carriers, in particular a plurality of sub-carriers. The channel carrying and/or for carrying control signaling/control information may be considered a control channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/or if it carries control plane information. Similarly, a channel carrying and/or for carrying data signaling/user information may be considered a data channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/or if it carries user plane information. Channels may be defined for a particular communication direction or two complementary communication directions (e.g., UL and DL, or sidelinks in both directions), in which case it may be considered to have two component channels, one for each direction. Examples of channels include channels for low latency and/or high reliability transmissions, particularly channels for ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC), which may be used for control and/or data.

In general, a symbol may represent and/or be associated with a symbol time length, which may depend on the carrier and/or subcarrier spacing and/or a parameter set of the associated carrier. Thus, a symbol may be considered to indicate a time interval having a symbol time length relative to the frequency domain. The symbol time length may depend on the carrier frequency and/or bandwidth and/or parameter set and/or subcarrier spacing of or associated with the symbol. Thus, different symbols may have different symbol time lengths. In particular, parameter sets with different subcarrier spacings may have different symbol time lengths. In general, the symbol time length may be based on and/or include a guard time interval or cyclic extension (e.g., prefix or suffix).

A sidelink may generally represent a communication channel (or channel structure) between two UEs and/or terminals, wherein data is transmitted between participants (UEs and/or terminals) via the communication channel, e.g. directly and/or not relayed via a network node. The sidelinks may be established via only and/or directly via the air interfaces of the participants, which may be directly linked via sidelink communication channels. In some variations, sidelink communications may be performed without interaction of the network nodes, e.g., on fixedly defined resources and/or resources negotiated between the participants. Alternatively or additionally, the network node may be considered to provide some control functionality, e.g. by configuring resources (in particular one or more resource pools), for sidelink communication and/or monitoring sidelinks, e.g. for charging purposes.

Sidelink communications may also be referred to as device-to-device (D2D) communications, and/or in some cases (e.g., in the context of LTE) as ProSe (proximity services) communications. The sidelinks may be implemented in the context of V2x communication (vehicle communication), such as V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle), V2I (vehicle-to-infrastructure), and/or V2P (vehicle-to-person). Any device suitable for sidelink communication may be considered a user equipment or a terminal.

The sidelink communication channels (or fabrics) may comprise one or more (e.g., physical or logical) channels, such as PSCCH (physical sidelink control channel, which may, for example, carry control information such as an acknowledgement location indication) and/or PSSCH (physical sidelink shared channel, which may, for example, carry data and/or acknowledgement signaling). The sidelink communication channel (or structure) may be considered to involve and/or use one or more carriers and/or frequency ranges associated with and/or used by cellular communication, e.g., according to particular permissions and/or standards. The participants may share (physical) channels and/or resources, in particular in the frequency domain and/or related to frequency resources (e.g. carriers) of the sub-link, such that two or more participants transmit thereon, e.g. simultaneously and/or time-shifted, and/or may have specific channels and/or resources associated with specific participants, such that e.g. only one participant transmits on a specific channel or on one or more specific resources, e.g. in the frequency domain and/or related to one or more carriers or sub-carriers.

The sidelink may be implemented in accordance with and/or in accordance with a particular standard (e.g., an LTE-based standard and/or NR). The sidelinks may utilize TDD (time division duplex) and/or FDD (frequency division duplex) techniques, e.g., as configured by the network node, and/or be preconfigured and/or negotiated between the participants. A user equipment and/or its radio circuitry and/or processing circuitry may be considered suitable for sidelink communication if it is suitable for utilizing the sidelink, e.g. over one or more frequency ranges and/or carriers and/or in one or more formats, in particular according to a specific standard. The radio access network can be generally considered to be defined by two participants in the sidelink communication. Alternatively or additionally, the radio access network may be represented and/or defined using and/or related to network nodes and/or communications with such nodes.

Communication or transfer may generally include sending and/or receiving signaling. Communication over the secondary link (or secondary link signaling) may include utilizing the secondary link for communication (and accordingly, for signaling). Sidelink transmission and/or transmission over a sidelink may be considered to comprise transmission using a sidelink (e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/or circuitry and/or an air interface). Sidelink reception and/or reception over a sidelink may be considered to comprise reception using a sidelink (e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/or circuitry and/or an air interface). Sidelink control information (e.g., SCI) may generally be considered to include control information transmitted using the sidelink.

In general, carrier Aggregation (CA) may refer to the concept of radio connections and/or communication links between wireless and/or cellular communication networks and/or network nodes and terminals or on sub-links comprising a plurality of carriers for at least one transmission direction (e.g. DL and/or UL), as well as to an aggregation of carriers. The corresponding communication link may be referred to as a carrier aggregation communication link or a CA communication link; the carriers in the carrier aggregation may be referred to as Component Carriers (CCs). In such links, data may be transmitted on multiple carriers and/or all carriers of a carrier aggregation (carrier aggregation). Carrier aggregation may include one (or more) dedicated control carriers and/or primary carriers (which may be referred to as primary component carriers or PCC, for example), on which control information may be transmitted, wherein the control information may relate to the primary carrier and other carriers, which may be referred to as secondary carriers (or secondary component carriers SCCs). In some approaches control information may be sent on multiple carriers of the aggregate (e.g., one or more PCCs and one PCC and one or more SCCs).

Transmissions may generally involve specific channels and/or specific resources, particularly having start and end symbols in time, covering the interval between them. The scheduled transmission may be a transmission for which resources are scheduled and/or anticipated and/or scheduled or provided or reserved. But not necessarily every scheduled transmission. For example, due to power limitations or other effects (e.g., channels on unlicensed carriers are occupied), the scheduled downlink transmissions may not be received, or the scheduled uplink transmissions may not be transmitted. Transmissions may be scheduled for a transmission timing substructure (e.g., a minislot, and/or covering only a portion of a transmission timing structure) within a transmission timing structure, such as a slot. The boundary symbols may indicate symbols in the transmission timing structure at which transmission starts or ends.

In the context of the present disclosure, predefined may refer to relevant information, e.g., defined in a standard, and/or available without a specific configuration from a network or network node (e.g., stored in memory independent of being configured). Configured or configurable may be considered to relate to corresponding information set/configured by the network or network node, for example.

The configuration or scheduling, such as a micro-slot configuration and/or a structural configuration, may schedule the transmission, e.g., it is efficient for time/transmission, and/or the transmission may be scheduled by separate signaling or separate configuration (e.g., separate RRC signaling and/or downlink control information signaling). The scheduled transmission may represent signaling to be sent by a device for which signaling is scheduled or signaling to be received by a device for which signaling is scheduled, depending on which side of the communication the device is on. It should be noted that downlink control information or, in particular, DCI signaling may be regarded as physical layer signaling, as compared to higher layer signaling such as Medium Access Control (MAC) signaling or RRC layer signaling. The higher the signaling layer, the lower its frequency/more time/resource consumption can be considered, at least in part because the information contained in such signaling must be conveyed through several layers, each of which requires processing and handling.

The scheduled transmission and/or the transmission timing structure such as a micro-slot or time slot may relate to a specific channel, in particular a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel or a physical downlink shared channel, e.g. PUSCH, PUCCH or PDSCH, and/or may relate to a specific cell and/or carrier aggregation. The corresponding configuration (e.g., scheduling configuration or symbol configuration) may relate to such channels, cells, and/or carrier aggregation. The scheduled transmission may be considered to represent a transmission on a physical channel, in particular a shared physical channel, such as a physical uplink shared channel or a physical downlink shared channel. Semi-persistent configuration may be particularly suitable for such channels.

In general, the configuration may be a configuration indicating timing, and/or be represented or configured by corresponding configuration data. The configuration may be embedded and/or included in a message or configuration or corresponding data, which may in particular semi-persistent and/or semi-static indicate and/or schedule the resource.

The control region of the transmission timing structure may be an expected or scheduled or reserved time interval for control signaling (in particular downlink control signaling) and/or for a particular control channel (e.g., a physical downlink control channel such as PDCCH). The interval may comprise and/or consist of a number of symbols in time that may be configured or configurable, e.g. by (UE-specific) dedicated signaling (which may be unicast, e.g. addressed to or intended for a specific UE) or RRC signaling on the PDCCH or on a multicast or broadcast channel. In general, the transmission timing structure may include a control region covering a configurable number of symbols. It is considered that typically the boundary symbol is configured to follow the control region in time.

The duration of the symbols of the transmission timing structure (symbol time length or interval) may generally depend on a parameter set and/or carrier, which may be configurable. The parameter set may be a parameter set to be used for the scheduled transmission.

Scheduling a device or scheduling and/or related transmissions or signaling for a device may be considered to include configuring resources for and/or indicating resources to a device or a form of configuring resources for and/or indicating resource instances to a device, e.g., for communication. Scheduling may particularly relate to a transmission timing structure or a sub-structure thereof (e.g. a slot or a mini-slot, which may be considered as a sub-structure of slots). It is contemplated that even for a scheduled sub-structure, for example if a base timing grid is defined based on a transmission timing structure, boundary symbols may be identified and/or determined relative to the transmission timing structure. The signaling indicating scheduling may include corresponding scheduling information and/or configuration data deemed to represent or contain information indicating scheduled transmissions and/or including scheduling information. Such configuration data or signaling may be considered as resource configuration or scheduling configuration. It should be noted that if there is no other configuration data (e.g., configured with other signaling such as higher layer signaling), such configuration (particularly as a single message) may not be complete in some cases. In particular, symbol configurations may be provided in addition to scheduling/resource configurations to accurately identify which symbols are allocated to scheduled transmissions. The scheduling (or resource) configuration may indicate a transmission timing structure and/or an amount of resources (e.g., in symbols or time length) for the scheduled transmission.

The scheduled transmission may be, for example, a transmission scheduled by a network or a network node. In this case, the transmission may be an Uplink (UL) or Downlink (DL) or Sidelink (SL) transmission. Devices (e.g., user equipment) for which the scheduled transmission is scheduled may be correspondingly scheduled to receive (e.g., in DL or SL) or transmit (e.g., in UL or SL) the scheduled transmission. Scheduling a transmission may in particular be considered as comprising configuring the scheduled device with resources for the transmission, and/or informing the device that the transmission is intended and/or scheduled for certain resources. The transmission may be scheduled to cover a time interval (in particular a consecutive number of symbols) which may form a consecutive time interval between (and including) the start symbol and the end symbol. The start and end symbols of a (e.g., scheduled) transmission may be within the same transmission timing structure (e.g., the same slot). However, in some cases, the end symbol may be in a later transmission timing structure (particularly a later in time structure) than the start symbol. For scheduled transmissions, a time duration may be associated therewith, and/or the time duration may be indicated, for example, in a number of symbols or associated time intervals. In some variations, different transmissions may be scheduled in the same transmission timing structure. The scheduled transmission may be considered to be associated with a particular channel (e.g., a shared channel such as PUSCH or PDSCH).

In the context of the present disclosure, a distinction can be made between dynamically scheduled or aperiodic transmissions and/or configurations and semi-static or semi-persistent or periodic transmissions and/or configurations. The term "dynamic" or similar terms may generally relate to valid and/or scheduled and/or configured configurations/transmissions for (relatively) short time scales (timescale) and/or occurrences (e.g., predefined and/or configured and/or limited and/or determined) and/or transmission timing structures, e.g., one or more transmission timing structures (such as slots or slot aggregations) and/or one or more (e.g., a particular number) of transmissions/occurrences. The dynamic configuration may be based on low-level signaling, e.g. control signaling on the physical layer and/or MAC layer, in particular in the form of DCI or SCI. The periodicity/semi-static may relate to a longer time scale, e.g. several time slots and/or more than one frame and/or undefined number of occurrences, e.g. until a dynamic configuration contradicts, or until a new periodic configuration arrives. The periodic or semi-static configuration may be based on and/or configured with higher layer signaling, in particular RCL layer signaling and/or RRC signaling and/or MAC signaling.

The transmission timing structure may include a plurality of symbols and/or define an interval (and, accordingly, their associated time interval) comprising a plurality of symbols. In the context of the present disclosure, it should be noted that for ease of reference, reference to a symbol may be construed to refer to a time domain projection or time interval or time component or duration or time length of the symbol, unless it is clear from the context that frequency domain components must also be considered. Examples of transmission timing structures include time slots, subframes, minislots (which may also be considered as a sub-structure of time slots), time slot aggregations (which may include multiple time slots and may be considered as a superstructure of time slots), and accordingly their time domain components. The transmission timing structure may generally include a plurality of symbols that define a time domain extension (e.g., interval or length or duration) of the transmission timing structure and are arranged adjacent to each other in the order of numbers. The timing structure (which may also be considered or implemented as a synchronization structure) may be defined by a series of such transmission timing structures, which may define, for example, a timing grid with symbols representing a minimum grid structure. The transmission timing structure and/or boundary symbols or scheduled transmissions may be determined or scheduled with respect to such a timing grid. The received transmission timing structure may be a transmission timing structure in which scheduling control signaling is received, for example, with respect to a timing grid. The transmission timing structure may in particular be a slot or a subframe or in some cases a minislot.

Feedback signaling may be considered as a form of control signaling such as uplink or sidelink control signaling, e.g., UCI (uplink control information) signaling or SCI (sidelink control information) signaling. The feedback signaling may in particular comprise and/or represent acknowledgement signaling and/or acknowledgement information and/or measurement reports.

The acknowledgement information may include an indication of a particular value or state for the acknowledgement signaling procedure, such as ACK or NACK or DTX. Such an indication may for example represent a bit or bit value or bit pattern or information switching. The different levels of acknowledgement information (e.g. providing differentiated information about reception quality and/or error location in the received data elements) may be regarded as and/or represented by control signaling. The acknowledgement information may generally indicate acknowledgement or non-reception or their different levels, e.g. representing ACK or NACK or DTX. The acknowledgement information may relate to an acknowledgement signaling procedure. The acknowledgement signaling may include acknowledgement information relating to one or more acknowledgement signaling procedures, in particular one or more HARQ or ARQ processes. It can be considered that for each acknowledgement signaling procedure to which acknowledgement information relates, a specific number of bits of the information size of the control signaling is allocated. The measurement report signaling may include measurement information.

The signaling may generally include one or more symbols and/or signals and/or messages. The signal may include and/or represent one or more bits, which may be modulated into a common modulated signal. The indication may represent signaling and/or may be implemented as a signal or signals. One or more signals may be included in and/or represented by a message. The signaling, in particular control signaling, may comprise a plurality of signals and/or messages, which may be transmitted on different carriers and/or associated with different acknowledgement signaling procedures, e.g. representing and/or relating to one or more such procedures. The indication may comprise and/or may be included in signaling and/or multiple signals and/or messages, which may be sent on different carriers and/or associated with different acknowledgement signaling procedures, e.g., representing and/or relating to one or more such procedures.

The signaling utilizing and/or on and/or associated with a resource or resource structure may be signaling covering the resource or structure, signaling on an associated frequency and/or within an associated time interval. The signaling resource structure may be considered to include and/or encompass one or more substructures that may be associated with one or more different channels and/or signaling types and/or include one or more holes (resource elements of the reception that are not scheduled for transmission or transmission). The resource sub-structure (e.g., feedback resource structure) may generally be contiguous in time and/or frequency over the associated interval. The sub-structure, in particular the feedback resource structure, may be considered to represent a rectangle filled with one or more resource elements in the time/frequency space. In some cases, however, the resource structure or sub-structure (particularly the frequency resource range) may represent a discontinuous pattern of resources in one or more domains (e.g., time and/or frequency). The resource elements of the sub-structure may be scheduled for associated signaling.

It should generally be noted that the number of bits or bit rate associated with particular signaling that may be carried on resource elements may be based on a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS). Thus, bits or bit rates may be regarded as a form of resource representing a resource structure or frequency and/or time range, e.g. depending on the MCS. The MCS may be configured or configurable, for example, by control signaling, such as DCI or MAC (medium access control) or RRC (radio resource control) signaling.

Different formats for control information may be considered, for example different formats for a control channel, such as a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH). The PUCCH may carry control information or corresponding control signaling, e.g., uplink Control Information (UCI). UCI may include feedback signaling and/or acknowledgement signaling such as HARQ feedback (ACK/NACK) and/or measurement information signaling including, for example, channel Quality Information (CQI) and/or Scheduling Request (SR) signaling. One of the supported PUCCH formats may be very short and may occur, for example, at the end of a slot interval and/or multiplexed and/or adjacent to PUSCH. Similar control information may be provided on the sidelink, in particular on a (physical) sidelink control channel such as (P) SCCH, e.g. as Sidelink Control Information (SCI).

A code block may be considered as a sub-element of a data element similar to a transport block, e.g., a transport block may include one or more code blocks.

The scheduling assignment may be configured with control signaling, such as downlink control signaling or sidelink control signaling. Such control signaling may be considered to represent and/or include scheduling signaling, which may indicate scheduling information. The scheduling assignment may be regarded as scheduling information indicating scheduling of signalling/transmission of signalling, in particular relating to signalling received or to be received by a device configured with the scheduling assignment. It may be considered that the scheduling assignment may indicate the resources on which data (e.g. data blocks or elements and/or channels and/or data streams) and/or (associated) acknowledgement signalling procedures and/or data (or in some cases reference signalling) is to be received and/or indicate the resources for associated feedback signalling and/or the range of feedback resources on which associated feedback signalling is to be transmitted. The transmissions associated with the acknowledgement signaling procedure and/or the associated resources or resource structures may be configured and/or scheduled, for example, by scheduling assignments. Different scheduling assignments may be associated with different acknowledgement signaling procedures. Scheduling assignments may be considered as examples of downlink control information or signaling, e.g. sidelink control information if the scheduling assignments are sent by a network node and/or provided on the downlink (or if sidelink is used and/or sent by a user equipment).

The scheduling grant (e.g., uplink grant) may represent control signaling (e.g., downlink control information/signaling). Scheduling grants may be considered to configure a range of signaling resources and/or resources for uplink (or sidelink) signaling, in particular uplink control signaling and/or feedback signaling, e.g. acknowledgement signaling. Configuring the signalling resource range and/or resources may comprise configuring or scheduling them for transmission by the configured radio node. The scheduling grant may indicate whether a channel and/or possible channels to be used/available for feedback signaling, in particular a shared channel such as PUSCH, may be used/is to be used. The scheduling grant may generally indicate one or more uplink resources and/or uplink channels and/or formats for control information related to the associated scheduling assignment. Both grants and allocations may be regarded as (downlink or sidelink) control information and/or associated with and/or sent with different messages.

The resource structure in the frequency domain (which may be referred to as a frequency interval and/or range) may be represented by a subcarrier grouping. The subcarrier groupings may include one or more subcarriers, each of which may represent a particular frequency interval and/or bandwidth. The bandwidth of the subcarriers, the length of the subcarrier spacing in the frequency domain may be determined by the subcarrier spacing and/or the parameter set. The subcarriers may be arranged such that each subcarrier is adjacent to at least one other subcarrier of the packet in frequency space (for a packet size greater than 1). The sub-carriers of the packet may be associated with the same carrier, e.g. configurable or configured or predefined. The physical resource blocks may be regarded as representing packets (in the frequency domain). A subcarrier packet may be considered to be associated with a particular channel and/or signaling type for which transmissions are scheduled and/or transmitted and/or intended and/or configured for at least one, multiple, or all subcarriers in the packet. Such associations may be time-dependent, e.g., configured or configurable or predefined, and/or dynamic or semi-static. The association may be different for different devices, e.g., configured or configurable or predefined, and/or dynamic or semi-static. A pattern of subcarrier packets may be considered, which may include one or more subcarrier packets (one or more subcarrier packets may be associated with the same or different signaling/channels), and/or one or more packets without associated signaling (e.g., as seen from a particular device). An example of a pattern is a comb (comb) for which one or more packets associated with one or more different channels and/or signaling types are arranged between pairs of packets associated with the same signaling/channel and/or one or more packets without associated channels/signaling.

Example types of signaling include signaling for a particular communication direction, particularly uplink signaling, downlink signaling, sidelink signaling, as well as reference signaling (e.g., SRS or CRS or CSI-RS), communication signaling, control signaling, and/or signaling associated with a particular channel (e.g., PUSCH, PDSCH, PUCCH, PDCCH, PSCCH, PSSCH, etc.).

In this disclosure, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth, such as particular network functions, procedures, and signaling steps, in order to provide a thorough understanding of the techniques presented herein. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the concepts and aspects may be practiced in other variations and modifications that depart from these specific details.

Concepts and variants are described in part in the context of Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE-advanced (LTE-a) or new radio mobile or wireless communication technologies, for example; however, this does not preclude the use of these concepts and aspects in connection with additional or alternative mobile communication technologies such as global system for mobile communications (GSM). While the described variations may relate to certain Technical Specifications (TSs) of the third generation partnership project (3 GPP), it should be understood that the methods, concepts and aspects may also be implemented in conjunction with different Performance Management (PM) specifications.

Furthermore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the services, functions and steps described herein may be implemented using software functioning in conjunction with a programmed microprocessor or using an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or a general purpose computer. It will also be appreciated that, although variations described herein are illustrated in the context of methods and apparatus, the concepts and aspects presented herein may also be embodied in a program product and in a system including, for example, a computer processor and control circuitry coupled to the processor's memory, wherein the memory is encoded with one or more programs or program products that perform the services, functions, and steps disclosed herein.

It is believed that the advantages of the aspects and variations presented herein will be fully understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the exemplary aspects thereof without departing from the scope of the concepts and aspects described herein or sacrificing all of its material advantages. The aspects presented herein may be varied in many ways.

Some useful abbreviations include:

Description of the abbreviations

ACK/NACK acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement

ARQ automatic repeat request

CAZAC constant amplitude zero cross-correlation

CBG code block group

CDM code division multiplexing

CM cube metric system

CQI channel quality information

CRC cyclic redundancy check

CRS common reference signal

CSI channel state information

CSI-RS channel state information reference signal

DAI downlink assignment indicator

DCI downlink control information

DFT discrete Fourier transform

DM (-) RS demodulation reference signal (command)

FDM frequency division multiplexing

HARQ hybrid automatic repeat request

Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT)

MBB mobile broadband

MCS modulation and coding scheme

MIMO multiple input multiple output

MRC maximum ratio combining

MRT maximum ratio transmission

MU-MIMO multi-user multiple input multiple output

OFDM/A orthogonal frequency division multiplexing/multiple access

PAPR peak-to-average power ratio

PDCCH physical downlink control channel

PDSCH physical downlink shared channel

PRACH physical random access channel

PRB physical resource block

PUCCH physical uplink control channel

PUSCH physical uplink shared channel

(P) SCCH (physical) sidelink control channel

(P) SSCH (physical) sidelink shared channel

RB resource block

RRC radio resource control

SC-FDM/A single carrier frequency division multiplexing/multiple access

SCI sidelink control information

SINR signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio

SIR signal-to-interference ratio

SNR signal to noise ratio

SR scheduling request

SRS sounding reference signal (Signaling)

SVD singular value decomposition

TDM time division multiplexing

UCI uplink control information

UE user equipment

URLLC ultra low latency high reliability communications

VL-MIMO oversized multiple-input multiple-output ZF zero forcing abbreviations may be considered to follow 3GPP usage if applicable.

Claims

1. A method of operating a network node (100), the network node (100) operating according to a first radio access technology, RAT, the method comprising: signaling including communication signaling and demodulation reference signaling, DMRS, is transmitted in a transmission resource pattern in which the DMRS is arranged according to a DMRS pattern selected from a set of DMRS patterns based on a coexistence indication indicating the presence of cell-specific reference signals, CRSs, associated with a second RAT.

2. A network node (100) adapted to operate according to a first radio access technology, RAT, the network node (100) being adapted to: signaling including communication signaling and demodulation reference signaling, DMRS, is transmitted in a transmission resource pattern in which the DMRS is arranged according to a DMRS pattern selected from a set of DMRS patterns based on a coexistence indication indicating the presence of cell-specific reference signals, CRSs, associated with a second RAT.

3. A method of operating a user equipment (10), the user equipment (10) operating according to a first radio access technology, RAT, the method comprising: based on the transmission resource pattern, receiving signaling including communication signaling and demodulation reference signaling, DMRS, wherein the receiving includes: the method further includes associating signaling received based on the transmission resource pattern with DMRS based on a DMRS pattern selected from a set of DMRS patterns based on a coordination indication indicating a presence of cell-specific reference signals, CRSs, associated with a second RAT.

4. A user equipment (10) adapted to operate according to a first radio access technology, RAT, the user equipment (10) being adapted to: based on the transmission resource pattern, receiving signaling including communication signaling and demodulation reference signaling, DMRS, wherein the receiving includes: the method further includes associating signaling received based on the transmission resource pattern with DMRS based on a DMRS pattern selected from a set of DMRS patterns based on a coordination indication indicating a presence of cell-specific reference signals, CRSs, associated with a second RAT.

5. The method or apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the first RAT corresponds to a new radio, NR, technology and the second RAT corresponds to a long term evolution, LTE, technology.

6. The method or apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the DMRS pattern is selected based on a capability indication indicating a capability of the user equipment (10) to select a DMRS pattern based on a coordination indication.

7. The method or apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the signaling is embedded in a transmission resource structure.

8. The method or apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the communication signaling is physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH, signaling.

9. The method or apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the transmission resource structure has an end symbol arranged in or coinciding with a symbol preceding an end symbol of a slot.

10. The method or apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the transmission resource structure is embedded in a time slot.

11. The method or the device of one of the preceding claims, wherein the transmission resource structure is scheduled to end in and/or comprise a last symbol of a time slot, wherein the last symbol is e.g. symbol 13, and/or comprises long communication signaling and/or physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH, transmissions which can be scheduled to have a duration from symbol n of a time slot to symbol m of a time slot, wherein n is in the range of 1 to 7 and/or corresponds to one symbol of the first half symbols of a time slot, and/or wherein m is 12 or 13 and/or represents the last symbol or the penultimate symbol of a time slot.

12. The method or apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the coordination indication and/or the capability indication is provided with higher layer signaling.

13. A program product comprising instructions adapted to cause a processing circuit to control and/or perform the method according to one of claims 1,3 or 5 to 11.

14. A carrier medium device carrying and/or storing the program product according to claim 12.